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Campaign at Sigma 7
"We've come to take Sigma 7 back from the Crusaders. To do that, we're going to kill every last one of them." :—Kadiu to Corporal Pollux The Campaign' of Sigma 7' was fought between the Bronx OutLawz and the Crusaders in mid-2011. The Battle Opening Actions :Main article: Keyes Loop On July 17th, 2011, Ensign William Lovell logged a large gravitational anomaly inside Slipstream space. Deciding that it could not be any form of Crusaders starship based on its immense size, Lovell passed it off as an asteroid, sent his hourly report, and thought nothing more of it. However, over Sigma Octanus IV, Commander Jacob Keyes, commanding officer of the Bronx OutLawz Destroyer Iroquois, realized that the large mass was in fact a battle group of Covenant ships after reading a report by Fhajad-084. The Covenant ships were flying in close formation; Large masses bend slipspace more easily than in real space, creating the illusion of a large mass when there are in fact several. Keyes concluded that the mass was comprised of four Covenant Frigates. However, when the Covenant battlegroup exited slipspace, the Iroquois found itself outmatched by the arrival of not four frigates but one Covenant Carrier, one Destroyer, and two frigates (medium-sized ships). Despite the hopeless tactical situation, Commander Keyes resolved to attack. The Iroquois set a collision course for the destroyer at emergency acceleration while launching a nuclear warhead in what seemed to be the wrong direction. The two escorting frigates proceeded to launch a salvo of plasma, but the Iroquois managed to evade by utilizing the emergency thruster. Having missed their target, the plasma came about and continued to track and home in on the UNSC warship. The trailing plasma was to prove critical to the success of Keyes' strategy. A last minute course correction allowed the Iroquois to merely "graze" the destroyer's shields rather than smash directly into the ship properly, resulting in the destruction of a large portion of the Iroquois' armor (Keyes had torn through 2 meters of titanium and had breached every bottom deck of the Iroquois). However, the tracking plasma was unable to correct for the sudden maneuver of their target and, in consequence, impacted on the destroyer instead. A heavy salvo of Archer missiles sent the remaining Covenant warship to its destruction. With the momentum built up during the first phase, the Iroquois performed a slingshot maneuver around the planet. Once safely away, the nuclear warhead deployed earlier, was detonated, completely draining the shields on the two frigates. Having completed its orbit, the Iroquois resumed its attack and destroyed the two Frigates with two heavy MAC rounds and hundreds of Archer missiles. Its escorts destroyed, the carrier then disengaged and escaped out system but not before leaving 34 dropships and a small ship to continue the ground assault. Ground Battle With thousands of Covenant soldiers deployed on the ground, and the city of Côte d'Azur in their hands, 1600 Marines under General Kits were sent in. A small deployment of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers dropped alongside the Marine force, but did not participate separately from the marines; Devesh Bhasin died during the drop due to malfunctions in his Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle4. Upon landing, the Marines set up their command center, Alpha Headquarters and a forward base, Firebase Bravo. The troopers were forced to operate with little intelligence of the surrounding area. Satellite scans were rendered useless by the fog and jungle canopy. Kits failed to realize that the jungle was crawling with Covenant, including a new race which was yet to be encountered by the UNSC; the Hunters. Lieutenant McCasky was ordered to take his platoon to observe Covenant activity in Grid 13 x 24. They traveled to the area by Warthog, but almost the entire platoon was wiped out by Hunters save for Corporal Harland, Privates Fincher, Walker and Cochran. Harland ordered a retreat as soon as he clearly saw the Hunters, but despite this Cochran was still wounded by a Needler. Although hounded by Banshees, the fireteam managed to destroy all pursuing Covenant and fall back safely. They found that Firebase Bravo had been completely overrun by Covenant forces and its survivors were systematically being hunted down and slaughtered. When they made it back to Alpha Headquarters, they found that that had also been mostly destroyed, with only fourteen enlisted men surviving on the planet's surface. Corporal Harland was forced to assume command. Harland's squad escapes Grid 13 x 24With the failure of the Marine strike team, the SPARTAN-IIs were sent in. Arriving at the destroyed H.Q., the squad, consisting of Spartan-117, Spartan-104, Spartan-James, Spartan-087, Spartan-029, Spartan-058, and six others quickly secured the base. After they arrived, Spartan 117 broke them into three four-man teams and personally assumed command of Blue Team. He sent Red and Green teams on their missions, then slogged through the jungle, arriving at Côte d'Azur. Entering the storm drains, Blue Team discovered a new Covenant race, the Engineers. Investigating Covenant activity in the Côte d'Azur Museum of Natural History, Blue Team discovered that the Covenant were scanning what appeared to be a simple piece of igneous rock, and sending the information to a ship in orbit. The team entered a massive firefight with two Hunters, which was a victory at the expense of James' arm, recovered the rock, and escaped. With a group of surviving civilians evacuated, the SPARTANs returned to H.Q. and detonated a HAVOK Nuclear Warhead, destroying Côte d'Azur and removing the Covenant presence on the planet. Second Space Battle With the ground battle continuing, more UNSC ships arrived in orbit over Sigma Octanus IV. At 0625 hours, Covenant vessels were detected on the edge of the system. The following space battle involved the UNSC fleet of 48 ships led by Admiral Stanforth against a smaller but technically stronger Covenant Fleet. The UNSC ships first formed a tight, "checkerboard" formation and fired all their MAC guns at the Covenant fleet. The repair station Cradle then moved in front of the UNSC formation, absorbing all plasma from the Covenant fleet's first salvo. This allowed the Bronx ships to dedicate all their engine power to recharging the MAC guns and fire a second salvo after the destroyed Cradle moved away. After this salvo, only eight Covenant vessels remained: Cruisers and Destroyers. The Bronx OutLawz fleet then scattered and proceeded to engage the Covenant fleet, which responded by releasing its Seraph fighters and opening heavy fire on the Bronx ships. The Iroquois spotted a Sith stealth ship in orbit above the planet and rammed it, stopping the Covenant from transmitting data from the planet's surface. The remaining Covenant vessels soon fled the system. The space battle was one of the few major victories that the Bronx OutLawz had had in space (despite major losses; less than ten ships remained intact after the battle) since Harvest was retaken. Admiral Stanforth had especially planned this battle to be a much needed victory and morale boost for the humans.5 It introduced the tactic of using a refit station to protect UNSC ships. The Covenant, however, had only come for the data retrieved from the Forerunner crystal transmitted from the planet, which revealed to them the location of Installation 20. After the battle had ended the Iroquois had a tracking bug attached to it masquerading as debris from the battle. This led to the discovery of Reach by Covenant forces. Aftermath A spy probe attached to the destroyer Iroquois lead the Bronx OutLawz to Reach, which they attacked the next month. It later transpired that the Covenant had learned the location of one of the Halos from the transmission, which they planned to activate to begin the Great Journey. As a result of the battle, there was much debris left in orbit around Sigma 7. HAZMALT teams swept the area but the area around the planet remained a navigational hazard for the next decade. Category:Great Massacres Category:Story Arcs Category:Wreckages